‘Angry Birds’ Movie Lands a Pair of Animation Vets as Directors
Sony Pictures Animation's 3D animated 'Angry Birds' movie has just found a pair of first-time directors. But don't worry, they've got a ton of animation credits under their belts.
Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly have been hired as co-directors for 'Angry Birds,' and will ready this film for its July 1, 2016 theatrical release. Kaytis has worked as an animator on Disney's upcoming 'Frozen' and 'Wreck-It Ralph,' was the animation supervisor on 'Tangled,' and worked on the Oscar-winning short film 'Paperman,' to name a few. As for Reilly, some of his credits include working as a storyboard artist on 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' and 'Hotel Transylvania,' and a storyboard supervisor on 'The Smurfs' movie.
Rovio Entertainment CEO Mikael Hed stated, "I’m very excited that Fergal and Clay have joined us, bringing with them their vast expertise. They are two of the brightest rising talents in animation, and I’m confident we are building the right team to tell the story of Angry Birds and deliver an amazing movie experience to our fans."
Angry Birds itself is one of the most success video game franchises of all time, and has been downloaded more than 1.7 billion times across multiple platforms. This endeavor will be the first time Rovio's hit brand will make the jump to the big screen, and its box office potential seems to be up in the air. Though, there is an audience out there that guzzles up everything from the stuffed pig heads to the plastic Angry Birds games to the various spinoff editions, including Angry Birds Star Wars.
'Angry Birds' will be produced by John Cohen of 'Despicable Me' and Catherine Winder of 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars,' with David Maisel ('Iron Man,' 'Thor,' 'Captain America') executive producing. Jon Vitti, who wrote the 'Simpsons Movie' screenplay, penned the script.